The first Indigenous person to win an Oscars recipient is pushing back on a CBC documentary that casts doubt on her Native American descent. According to The Hollywood Reporter, songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie said the CBC News documentary, which concluded that she is actually of Italian and English origin, relied upon fabricated claims made by her alleged childhood abuser and estranged family members she alleges she has never met. “This has been incredibly re-traumatizing for me and unfair to all involved,” Sainte-Marie said in a statement. “It hurts me deeply to discover that my estranged family grew up scared of me and thinking these lies because of a letter I sent intended to protect me from further abuse from my brother.” As for her birth certificate that has been called into question, she said: “It was common for birth certificates of Indian children to be ‘created’ by Western governments after they were adopted or taken away from their families. So, it was quite shocking to me to hear a city clerk say she had 100% confidence in its authenticity.” Sainte-Marie won an Academy Award for her song “Up Where We Belong,” from the 1982 drama An Officer and a Gentleman, and throughout her six-decade career has been an outspoken activist for Indigenous rights.
